Can We Consider Australia a Developed Country with a Lot of Future Potential - Are We Tech Savvy and Business Oriented?

"Of course, we are!" - say Liberals and Labor.

"Nah, not really" - says Statista.
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Link:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQ9aYSlXsAAD4LT?format=png&name=…

In terms of allowing conditions to create solid unicorn companies we are on par with Mexico, Chile, Argentina and some African countries.
China, India and even Brazil are doing much much better than we do.
The US are doing 50 (fifty!) times better. China is doing 10 times better. China (!) that our big-mouth politician would call "an oppressing, unfair police state" is doing something right, something that our strong democratic and fair dinkum society CANNOT deliver.

Who cares, bid up that house matey!

What do you think?
Is this the government or the people being the reason?

Door 1: Blame the Government

Easy way out. Of course that is their fault!
Surprisingly, they have not done much differently to other developed governments - i.e. created extra easy monetary conditions to flood people and businesses with money to allow investment, development and prosperity. Not much different except for ONE thing.

Whether this was due to English descent (UK also love their housing bubble and have similar laws / stimulus) or simply political greed, every Australian government (until recent Labor feeble attempts) have heavily subsidized property investment and incentivized poperty-related tax concessions.

It is not uncommon in the corridors of power to stimulate a particular sector of economy, BUT two absolute rivals (and our winner/runner-up in a Unicorn competition) have bubble-pressure release valves in their system. The US does this through cruel capitalism structure and creative destruction while China has a knack for "moving the asset bubbles around" through thoughtful inflation and bubble bursts via CCP means (not joking, they have had good luck with a set of wise men steering the wheel).
Both countries and governments have easily allowed a serious destruction of wealth through property bubble bursts (when it was required). That, however, cannot happen in Australia.

Door 3: Let's keep the ball rolling

Good choice, a safe one (until it's not). Shoveling money into commodities and property sector is a losers game as there is limited growth in those sectors by default. And after some time you need to start inflating the asset bubble to allow the same old economy keep "bearing gifts". The US and China are proving us that only EXPONENTIAL growth in tech and smart ways of doing business can deliver the desired levels of growth.

So what's wrong with the old school of "dirt and houses" trading?

As a country, we will need keep importing and warehousing bodies (immigration) in a hope that commodities boom will last forever (sadly it won't) and keep inflating that bubble until… well just keep inflating it. The cities will become more and more crowded (otherwise how you will keep the bubble inflating?), the jobs will be paying less and less in REAL terms, inflation will be high and higher (have you seen those RE prices, I will need to charge more for milk and eggs).
This option also has a VERY BAD social outcome as we will pay MORE for capital and LESS for labor which means that ALL younger people who don't have a lot to offer apart from their time and skills will earn less and will be taxed more. Pretty much a recipe for a civil war (or a nice old-school violent revolution) in 10-20 years time.

Door 2: Looking into the mirror

Who will you vote for in the coming election?

Poll Options

  • 238
    Let's blame the government
  • 33
    Let's blame the people
  • 19
    Let's bid up houses and trade dirt with China

Comments

    • This is the crux of why Japan is so great at manufacturing but not so with tech.

      Aus is somewhere in between Japan and the US.

      • Japan is not great with tech?

        • Have they been to the 🌕 and back?

        • Manufacturing hardware definitely, but not the knowledge economy (software, social media, etc).

          The Rise of Modern Japan by Mark Ravina gives a excellent explanation of the cultural and other issues that led to this.

        • Japan is not great with tech?

          They were in the 80's, 90's and early 00's.

          Look at the old CRT TVs and PC components for example.
          Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, NEC, etc. Even the shittier brands like Akai, Sanyo, Teac. All Japanese.

          Now it's all Korean and Chinese brands.

          Same thing with mobile phones (Sony, Panasonic, etc), Laptops (toshiba, sony, NEC), computer components (Chinese capacitors, WD bought out Hitachi for hard drives).

          Korean brands are over taking appliances like air conditioners, microwaves and I think fridges.

          And the manufacturing of Japanese tech products has moved to China in the early 00's. Eg. After the very first revision of PS2 and Gamecube, the rest were made in China. Sony and Panasonic TVs used to be made in Japan, etc.

    • +1

      Businesses are slowly figuring out that the best way to fill their pockets is to exploit some government loopholes or strong arm/guilt trip them into printing money.

      It's much easier than actually providing value and competing in the marketplace.

  • +3

    Houses and holes is our country motto.

  • +2

    At the moment I am primarily planning to vote for the party that has some concrete plans for improving the healthcare system. I think this specific area affects everyone, rich or poor.

    • +1

      So not the liberals then?

  • Made me think of this article I read recently.

    https://www.smh.com.au/education/australia-has-spent-a-milli…

  • +1

    Nothing stopping you moving to Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Africa, China, India or Brazil. Me, I'd rather live in a Australia.

    • It's not that easy to legally move to those countries without 1) access to a golden visa, 2) having at least $500,000 to $1M to invest in real estate or Pty Ltd/ LLC.

      • Just overstay on a tourist visa 🤣

  • +3

    Here's a headline that summarise modern Australia
    https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/australia-is-rich-dumb-an…

    Australia has never been an innovative, progressive, risk taking society. Our leaders are mediocre and the people are mostly "laid back" rather than hard workers.

    Donald Horne said this in 1964

    Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.

    That was 50 yrs ago and it still true today.

    • maybe Donald Horne should jump off a cliff - imagine calling all of your fellow countrymen as 'second rate' - what a douche.
      I find the lack of appreciation (for how good life is in this country) to be quite disturbing. There are people who'd risk any and everything just to get a chance to live here, breathe clean air, live in a country where rule of law still mostly intact

      • +2

        This country is amazing to live in and most people complain about the smallest inconvenience or increase in prices here when inflation in some countries go into triple digits. We don't have war, economic disasters, or real poverty here.
        An hour's work at minimum wage buys you a lot more than most countries and you can still make a lot of money without schooling. The fact that most tradesmen/construction workers make more than our teachers/nurses really demonstrates that (although this is part of the problem). You don't see many countries where the retail workers, hospo workers, chefs, etc. earn as much as they do here.

        That's not to say we don't have our troubles and I see this country getting worse. As someone mentioned above, with our natural resources, we should be living much better. That part annoys me. While we live amazing lives here, that doesn't mean we should be complacent and let it gradually get worse.

  • Successful start ups? Look at Germany.

    Australia primary industries are: resources, agriculture and home building (which props up banking)

    Look at top 20 companies on the ASX.

    This is industries from when Jesus was a baby.

    No need to look for unicorns. Just look at what nuts fall from the tree.

  • +1

    I like to compare countries based on the sector allocation of their biggest public companies.
    Australia

    Financials 28.1
    Materials 25.9%
    Health Care 8.9%
    Consumer Discretionary 7.0%
    Real Estate 6.9%

    U.S.A

    Technology 27.6%
    Consumer Discretionary 15.3%
    Health Care 12.9%
    Industrials 12.6%
    Financials 11.3%

  • Lol do you know what the Chinese call us?

    土澳。Mud Aussie.

    We are like countryside compared to China

  • TLDR.

  • +1

    I find it fascinating that business success is considered such a high priority, I’d rather live here than nearly anywhere else, because it’s an awesome place and it’s citizens are relatively well supported.

  • Libs usually wheel out their mantel piece Johnny H out of the liberal run age care facility to ramp up support. Those eyebrows are getting bushier in his old age.

  • Australians created wifi, that's something right?

    • The 🇦🇺 department sold out by not demanding $4 per device.

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